


Ghosts newly found

by viridianova



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Flashbacks, Ghosts, Kise POV, M/M, One-Sided KiseKuro, Train Rides
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-23
Updated: 2014-12-29
Packaged: 2018-01-09 17:42:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1148958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viridianova/pseuds/viridianova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a slightly alternate universe, Kise Ryouta can see ghosts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Nijimura

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kise receives a strange request.

_"Ryouta, do you understand what this family does?"_

_His older sister had asked him that, when she'd taken him to watch his first exorcism. It hadn't been a nice thing, not at all. The baby had been in so much pain, had just screamed and screamed and screamed. She'd watched him with a look of vague concern on her face, to see if he'd star screaming too. She'd have to hide that if it did happen. But Ryouta had stayed calm through the whole thing— so calm that even his sister found it a bit strange. Hyper, crybaby Ryouta— that's what he'd known she was thinking about, even back then. He'd always been good at reading people. And he'd always been good at giving people what they wanted._

_"Mm. We get rid of those bad things."_

_His sister paused. She nodded. She seemed pleased by that answer, that Kise had just called them "those bad things" and nothing else._

_"Do you know what those bad things are called?"_

_It was said patronizingly. It always made Ryouta a little angry, how his sisters always looked down on him, just because he was younger._

_"Ghosts. Ghosts are the bad things." He said it dully, without looking directly in his sister's eyes._

_"Mm, you're right. That's a very good answer. I'll make sure mom and dad know you said that. You're gonna shape up to be such a good inheritor."_

_Kise had always hated it when she said things like that. But at least back then, he'd actually believed what he'd been saying._

* * *

It had been a long day. Kise's manager had been onto him again, and he'd been thinking about his childhood, all those promises of inheritance and ghosts and a good, stable life. He'd believed in it all once, too. That he was really there to maintain the order. He'd always sort of hated it, that his sisters would get to do whatever they wanted, while he was going to be the one stuck in that awful huge house eventually. But at least he'd used to be proud, sometimes.

At least for now, he got to have his own apartment. At least for now, he got to pretend, got to relive his model days while he convinced his parents that this was just a quarter-life crisis. Not that he got to escape his duty much, anyways.

It had been a totally normal afternoon, except that the ghost of Nijimura Shuuzou had been sitting in his living room.

The odd thing was, if it had been any other ghost, or Nijimura Shuuzou himself, this would have been totally normal. Well— really, it would have been more normal if it had just been a ghost, because Kise had gotten used to such things. He was used to the attention of ghosts, used to being considered such a strong medium that nearly any ghost would come to him to try and see if he could solve their problem, even if it was impossible. Because Kise was a famous model, and he had a pretty face, and at least he sort of knew how the whole publicity side of this thing worked, so he could charm even the people he had to refuse.

All of the publicity training in the world couldn't prepare him for the spirit of Teikou's ex-captain, though.

Honestly, Kise barely remembered Nijimura— he hadn't been captain, by the time Kise had joined, and he hadn't paid much attention to basketball in his first year in Teikou. But it wasn't really the kind of thing you expected— for anyone you knew in middle school to be dead at the age of twenty five.

But all he could do was stare.

Nijimura fixed his tie. (He was wearing a uniform, looked like a high school uniform, did that mean he'd died in high school? Had he really never heard? Had he been so absorbed in the trials and tribulations of basketball and modeling that somehow the news of the former captain of most of the Generation of Miracles dying had slipped his mind? Maybe it really didn't matter, since he hadn't been a Miracle himself.) He looked uncomfortable being there, in Kise's apartment. But he was here. And he didn't seem too happy with the way Kise was looking at him, either. Like he knew what Kise was thinking about. Like he'd somehow heard it all before.

"I have a favor to ask, Kise. Don't make me drag this out any longer than I need to, I already didn't want the help of a stupid medium in the first place. But everyone's been saying that we need one of your guys' help in order to talk to people who aren't ghosts."

He looked unsure as he spoke. Kise felt a little bad about forcing him to talk, but a ghost who couldn't even get out what he wanted from him wasn't worth his time anymore. He didn't want to do this so much.

"Ah, you need me to find someone, huh...?" He put on a show of thinking, a show of deeply considering his schedule. but Nijimura didn't have time for that, apparently.

"Look— I've heard all about the game you play with your customers, but I don't have time for that, alright? I need you to help me find Kuroko Tetsuya."

That was enough to get Kise to stop dead in his tracks.

* * *

_"Kurokocchi, Kurokocchiiiii." Kise had to run to try and catch up with Kuroko that day. He'd been attached to Kuroko almost since they'd first met. At first Kise had gotten a weird vibe off of him, thought he was weak and weird. But all of that changed, once Kuroko had finally told him his secret._

_Half-ghost. Kuroko Tetsuya was a half-ghost._

_Kise had never heard of a half-ghost before._

_"A half-ghost is really just a human," Kuroko had told him, with that strange flat tone to his voice. "A human haunted by a ghost that had never been removed."_

_"I've never really heard of that, though." Kise had been a bit indignant, that there had been some piece of ghost lore than he hadn't heard of before._

_"Do you think most people have heard of ghosts, Kise-kun?"_

_"Well, no, but-- how'd that even happen?"_

_"When I was very young. I don't even remember being a fully human kid."_

_He had give Kise a half-smile, then, and had tried to disappear._

_But even a medium who wasn't used to half-ghosts could still sense them, generally. He had been able to chase after Kuroko, been able to track him down and try to corner him._

_"Kurokocchi, you can't just leave after telling me something like that, you know..." He gave Kuroko a sad look, the kind of look more commonly associated with kicked puppies than actual people._

_"That's what I always do." He still wasn't looking at Kise as he said it. He was upset, or at least Kise thought he must be, that Kuroko would have to look at him otherwise. Was he upset that Kise knew, now? Or upset that Kise had come after him._

_"Well, maybe it was easy for you before, but it won't be now. I'll always be able to find you, Kurokocchi."_

_Kuroko had actually jabbed him in the stomach for that, but he'd been smiling while he did it._

_That was the first time he realized he had a crush on Kuroko Tetsuya._

* * *

So much had happened since then. Even more than just the young man— no, he was a ghost, he hadn't even grown up— in his living room. High school had happened. He'd lost to Kuroko in high school basketball, multiple times, with that new partner of his. He'd had his own team, his own captains, and he'd become a captain himself. But after high school, he'd had to stop playing. The Kise family had always been known for their mediums, and Kise had to take up the family business. He'd been allowed to go to university, and even been allowed to keep doing modeling on occasion. But he couldn't keep up with basketball, even at a club level, anymore. The expectation would eventually be that he'd take over, after all. He had to learn.

And he had learned, even though he'd convinced his parents to let him stay out of the house. His parents hadn't been too happy— they'd wanted him to stay at the ancestral home. But Kise was a bit of a force of nature, and he knew how to get what he wanted. And anyways, this meant that he could deal with the ghosts in his own way, without having to worry about his parents judging him for what he did. Like he was sure they'd judge him for this.

Nijimura was still sitting there, though, while Kise had been lost in thought.

He paused again before speaking. "I haven't seen Kurokocchi since I graduated from high school. I couldn't sense him now."

Nijimura almost rolled his eyes.

"Well he's left traces. He's had to, they always do. A half-ghost can't always hide. Not even from normal people."

"Then?" Kise was smiling a little. 

Nijimura paused. "Well, and you know him well. This'd be a lot harder for a medium who'd never met Kuroko Tetsuya, or even once or twice. I need to find him." He scowled, obviously still put out by this entire interaction. "Please."

Kise blinked. It was a bit complicated, why the Generation of Miracles had fallen apart so badly after high school, when they'd all gone off and gotten their own lives. Basketball had managed to keep them together in high school, somehow. But in college that wasn't enough. So many of them had stopped, so many of them had gone other places, scattered out across Japan except this time there weren't thrice yearly tournaments to force them back together. 

They were adults though. Those excuses were cheap. The real answer was that Kuroko, more than anything, had held the seven of them together. And he was gone.

"I really haven't..."

"Yeah, I know. You're gonna say you haven't seen him, and I know you haven't, but a half ghost leaves a trail. You can help. We can talk to all of those old friends of yours, right? You guys were all such a pain in the ass. All you _geniuses_. You know where they are. I don't. I can just find you because you're a—"

"Medium. Yeah." Kise just had to sigh. The same old story, except that this time it was personal. He couldn't just wave this away, not when he actually had an excuse to go find him.

* * *

_He had been in university, although he wasn't quite sure what year it had been anymore, or what season._

_"Tetsu's gone."_

_Aomine hadn't even come to visit in person that day. He'd just given Kise a goddamn phone call, but at least he hadn't just texted._

_Tetsu's gone. Tetsu-kun's gone. Kuro-chin's gone. Tetsuya's gone. Kuroko's gone. Kurokocchi's gone._

_"For good?" He remembered saying. Aomine had just sighed._

_"Yeah. He vanished. His number doesn't work or anything. His landlord had a hard time figuring out if he'd even been there, but his plate was still in the door. You know anything?"_

_None of the other members of the Generation of Miracles had known about Kuroko. It was actually a little ironic, considering that Aomine made such a point of being scared of ghosts, yet he'd never been able to see what was right in front of him. They all just thought Kuroko was unremarkable. Akashi was the only one who might have had an inkling, might have given Kuroko a couple of too long looks, but as far as Kise knew, he had never actually known. Akashi had never told anyone anything._

_"No," he'd heard himself say, even though hundreds of situations were going through his mind just now. Every single story his parents had told him, about ghosts, about half-ghosts and all of the risks that went along with making him. Kuroko could be anywhere, he could be in purgotory, he could be dead, he could—_

_"Kise?" There was even a note of concern in his voice. His crush on Kuroko had never really been a secret._

_"Um. Sorry, Aominecchi, I have to go."_

_But Kuroko really had been gone, by the time he'd gotten to the place he'd remembered him living. Of course he would be— it's not like he'd have come back. And it had taken so long to get there. And it felt like the world had gone cold, or maybe it had just been autumn._

_Kuroko was gone, and when he'd gone back and tried to get his family to understand, they'd just laughed a bit and asked him what exactly he'd been expecting, getting involved with someone that defied all of the rules._

_He'd never be able to find him. He didn't know where to start, and no one would want to help him with this. It's not like he could go and tell the whole world his secret._

* * *

Nijimura was biting his lip, tapping his foot, looking utterly desperate to get out of Kise's apartment.

"You spaced out."

Kise just laughed it off— as he always did, always could. He didn't really want Kise to know what he was thinking about. "Ah, sorry, Nijimura-san. You want me to help you track down Kurokocchi, right?"

Nijimura just stared blankly. He didn't say anything, but Kise could see the frustration on his face. 

"Don't worry, I'll help you out. I'd really like to find him, too." He gave him a glib little smile. "What's your plan?"

Nijimura actually lit up, then. It must have been the captain's blood in him, that urge to lead others.

"Well, you're a member of the Generation of Miracles, right? You guys're probably the ones who would have the most traces of him on you— you know what a ghost trace is—" He barely looked up, had lost all of his impatience and was just barrelling ahead.

"So I figured we'd start with who you'd think he'd know the best. You wouldn't have a trace on you by yourself though. I need you to help me find the traces on everyone else. So who do you think'd be first?"

Kise paused, had to think for a moment because he hadn't expected Nijimura to be so clear in his plan. He wasn't actually sure what a ghost trace was, if he was being honest, but he'd have to pretend to.

At least he didn't have to pretend he didn't know his teammates. They all knew Kise, in their own way, but even though he was tempted to say they should go see Aomine first, he knew that practically, that someone had to be a lot easier.

"Momocchi. She'd—" There's no way she'd know, she'd never really known anything, but she did know something about infogathering and statistics and she'd been just as in love with Kuroko as he'd been.

"She might know."

And even if she didn't, at least she might give a clue.

Nijimura just nodded.

"Tomorrow then. You know where she lives right?"

Kise nodded.

Nijimura opens his mouth, then stops himself, before he speaks.

"Thanks."

Maybe it was Kise who should be saying thank you.


	2. Momoi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kise and Nijimura visit Momoi to get a bit more of the story. Some things have changed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while, huh.
> 
> What can I say! It's been a rough year, in a lot of ways, but I did want to at least get the ball rolling again. Hopefully I'll be able to stick to a stricter schedule now. Please note the additional tags also! I wouldn't want anyone to get to the end of the story to feel like they were misled, and also I wanted to give people an idea of what might be coming at the end. Hopefully the way in which the ending pairing comes about will be surprising and interesting. Enjoy!

_Kise had never been the only one in love with Kuroko Tetsuya. He was never even the one most obviously in love with him._

_That was always Momoi Satsuki. And at first, Kise had hated her._

_Momoi had always been all over him— and for Kise, who had come in later than everyone else, to the basketball club, and already felt like he was always missing something that the rest of the team had together, it felt like an affront. But it's not like he had anyone he could talk to about it, since everyone else felt like they already had their "special relationship" with Kise. Momoi just became the most obvious target for Kise's irritation, at least in his head._

_There wasn't much he could do about it without making other members of the club angry with him, after all. He couldn't afford to alienate Aomine, especially, since he and Momoi had apparently been friends since they were kids. Akashi wouldn't stand for it, either (and doesn't he have more important things to be worrying about anyways?) And especially, it would come back to Kuroko, eventually, and no matter how much it seemed like Kuroko didn't really return her feelings, Kise knew he wouldn't like it._

_So as a result, Kise pined after Kuroko in silence, for at least the first several months he was in the basketball club. He didn't want to get in the way of what they already had, even if he still couldn't figure out just what was so off about Kuroko, yet. In the meantime, he focused on basketball, and on Aomine— the one who made him care about the sport in the first place._

_He'd be glad to stay lost in Aomine, even for a while, even if playing against him constantly reminded him a little of the girl he most considered his rival._

* * *

Nijimura was staring at him when he started awake. They were sitting opposite each other on the train— Momoi didn't live in Tokyo anymore, and Kise had told Nijimura that they would leave to go see her first thing in the morning. Which really meant several hours on the train to head to her house.

He'd texted her first, at least.

`Momocchi, do you have time tomorrow for a visit?`

`Ki-chan?? Is this really you???? Or did Dai-chan get ahold of your phone and think this was a funny joke????????`

They went back and forth like that for a little while, until Kise just told Momoi to call her.

"Momocchi, it's been a while."

There was something of a terse pause on the other end of the line. "A while is an understatement, Ki-chan. I haven't heard anything from you since..." She trailed off.

They both knew when they'd last been in touch. When Kuroko had disappeared.

Kise coughed a little, and continued. "Um, it's actually about Kurokocchi, believe it or not. I wanted to talk to you about him a little, if you didn't mind?"

She sighed a little. "Ki-chan, I'm really not sure..."

"I'll come out to where you are. I've always wanted to visit some of the smaller towns in Chiba, anyways."

She'd barely been able to protest. Kise always got his way, when he really wanted to, after all.

Thankfully it wasn't much of a weekend for people to be vacationing in Chiba. The car was almost empty, except for one other couple at the opposite end. Kise could face Nijimura, and as long as he kept his voice low no one would really care about what he was talking about. Nijimura would just be thin air to anyone else.

But thin air couldn't burn a hole in someone's forehead. He was obviously irritated, and Kise couldn't play innocent. They were preparing, for something of a crazy journey, and the ride on the Keisei Main Line to Kouzaki wasn't really that long.

"You shouldn't be sleeping, Kise."

Kise allowed himself to pout a little bit— like somehow being in the presence of someone even vaguely like a senior just provoked that response.

"You can't even sleep, Nijimura..." He trailed off, not really sure what to call him. He still looked like he was in high school, after all, so why did he still feel like he had to address him with respect?

"Just call me Nijimura." Almost like he could read his mind. "I'm not your captain or your senior anymore." He seemed annoyed, but he didn't expand on that statement, or even make any comment on the fact that Kise had just reminded him of his non-human state.

"How long was I out?"

"Only fifteen minutes."

"Did they say how long it'd be until Narita?"

Nijimura gave him a withering look— like he couldn't believe that Kise was asking him something as petty as a train schedule.

"Well, it must be close.... couldn't you just go straight to Chiba, anyways? Ghosts aren't limited by human movement, right?"

"She wouldn't be able to see me unless you were there."

"But then I wouldn't have to be talking to you on the train."

Nijimura just sighed, like he couldn't believe that he was stuck explaining something so incredibly juvenile to someone technically older than he was.

"If I left you, and went to Chiba, two things would happen. One, you might not be able to find me again, and more importantly, your friend wouldn't be able to see me unless you were there to help. Does that make more sense?"

He glared at Kise, trying to bore into his head just what exactly he felt about this question.

The electronic announcer voice crackled to life and told them that they were approaching Narita station.

"It's time for our transfer." Kise looked away from Nijimura then, and reached up above their compartment to grab his things. He couldn't believe there was still another leg to this journey.  
 _There was one point at which he'd almost told her what Kuroko was. They had been in high school, already, for a couple of years, and Momoi had noted that Kuroko had seemed to be fading a little, lately._

_They started to develop a much better relationship, honestly, once Kise actually talked to her, and realized that beyond being a terrible person to have as an enemy, Momoi could be a very good friend. She listened to him— and she knew a lot about Aomine, and understood a lot of the problems he had with him, up until Kaijou finally beat Touou, just one time in their second year._

_She'd been the first to congratulate him, then, actually. Even before Kuroko and Kagami had arrived at the scene._

_The conversation had been after Kuroko and Kagami had left that day._

_"I've noticed something weird about Tetsu-kun lately..." She said it in that weird passive tone that she had sometimes, that she mostly used when she didn't want to sound like she knew as much as she did. "It seems like he's lost some presence."_

_Kise had noticed it too— and he'd even brought it up Kuroko, one of the few times he'd been able to get him alone, without Kagami hovering over him constantly. Not that he could even blame Kagami all that much for his actions, honestly. Kuroko had just smiled, and said that this happened every five years or so. He just hadn't known Kise long enough for him to see the cycle._

_He just laughed when Momoi suggested it— a little too high and fake, maybe, but the laugh was mostly passable. He hoped that Momoi would just confuse it with pretending not to be worried, and not because he actually knew what was going on._

_"You think so? His jab to my side certainly had some..."_

_Momoi scowled at him. "Ki-chan, this isn't the time for jokes! It makes no sense for him to be losing presence _now_!"_

_Now that he'd learned how to play basketball in a totally different style than he'd used in middle school._

_"Well maybe he'll take the teams by surprise again..."_

_"Ki-chan!"_

_But her voice hadn't really been scolding, anymore._

* * *

It had taken about two more hours, including both train time and getting lost time, to finally arrive at Momoi's apartment. When she opened the door, though—

Kise actually let out a bit of a gasp, because Momoi had cut all her hair off.

"Ah— Momocchi—" He almost lifted a hand out, to try and touch it, but Momoi slapped his hand away.

" _Jeez_ , Ki-chan, you're acting just like my mother did when she saw me the first time after I cut it."

Then she hesitated, and her face paled, when she saw who was standing behind them.

"Is that...?"

Kise forced himself in before Momoi could make a scene in front of the entire neighborhood.

"Yes, it's Nijimura."

"But he died! While we were in high school!"

Nijimura was still standing behind Kise a little awkwardly. Hovering, even, and every second that Momoi looked at him she seemed to get a little more scared—

"He's a ghost, Momocchi! Don't worry, he won't harm you, alright? He's with me."

"A ghost...?" She looked confused, like this was some elaborate prank and Nijimura was just some cosplayer.

"Look— Nijimura, how far away do I need to be that she won't see you?"

Nijimura just scowled again.

"If there's a wall between us, and we can't see each other, that's enough."

"Alright!" He turned around, to offer Momoi a bright, reassurring smile. "I'll just go to the bathroom, so don't worry too much in the meantime, alright?"

She just nodded as he left the room, and he could hear her yelp when Nijimura popped out of her sight.

That was enough to get Kise to come running back. He didn't want to lose track of Nijimura.

"Momocchi! See!"

Nijimura was still seated in exactly the same position as he'd been when Kise'd left the room.

"Ki-chan... I just don't understand..." 

She sounded close to tears.

"Mm... well, I guess now I have to explain it all to you, don't I?"

* * *

It took about two hours, but he did manage to get through most of it— his childhood, and how Kuroko was a half-ghost, and how Nijimura had come to him with such a strange request.

"I think Nijimura might already have what he needs from you, just from being in the same room—"

"No, she has to talk," Nijimura snapped, before turning to Momoi. "You have to talk. It's about filling in missing gaps of the story, so that we know where to look next. She has an entire story that you never knew, right? You have the most bias of anyone with a trace of Kuroko Tetsuya on them. Because you knew who he was."

That mollified Kise for a moment. Nijimura really did have a commanding presence, even though he still had the body of a high school student. Maybe that's what happened when you were stuck in purgatory for so long. You started to age, in your own way, even if your body isn't.

"Well, Momocchi... is there anything you think needs explaining?"

Momoi nodded, and ran a hand through her now very short hair.

"Hmm... if it's alright, Ki-chan, I'd like to tell a few stories from middle school then. Hopefully it will help both of you— you already know how everything ended, of course, but there were some things that he only told me, and I also knew him during first year..."

Her voice had gotten wistful, but she was still observant enough to notice Kise's tiny scowl as she said that.

"But don't worry! I won't make you jealous, Ki-chan, but maybe you could learn something from a former girlfriend of his?"

Kise would have spit out a protest, but Momoi had already started on her story.

* * *

_She had first met Kuroko when Aomine had found him in the third-string gymnasium. Back then he really had thought that Kuroko was a ghost, and all Momoi could have done was scoff. But there was something a little impressive about him anyways, to her— in his strange command over his own presence in front of other people. And in the way he had always been respectful of her, even from the start._

_She'd always been the one to say they were dating, but Kuroko had always gone along with it graciously._

_There had also been the times he'd actively stood up for her— although more impressive was his curious ability to make them both vanish when something particularly bad was upon them._

_The first time she was too surprised to ask for an explanation. But the second time (only a few weeks after the first), it was too much to ignore._

_They had been in front of the convenience store after practice, just the two of them. Momoi had only just started developing— not very much, but enough to warrant some hoots from particularly forward junior high schoolers, and occasionally students from the nearby high school, as well. She was starting to get used to it, but it had been a bad day at school, and she was feeling particularly flustered._

_"Momoi-san," Kuroko said suddenly. "Please take my hand."_

_She did._

_Suddenly, the boy who had been closest to her let out a yelp._

_"Hey! Where'd she go?"_

_Kuroko beckoned to her with his free hand to go around to the other side of the convenience store. He looked both ways, to make sure no other harrassers were nearby, before letting go._

_He looked at her expectantly, like he was waiting for her question._

_She wasn't sure what question to ask._

_"Can you transfer your lack of presence to others now?" Even to her own ears, it sounded stupid. Kuroko just smiled._

_"Something like that."_

* * *

Nijimura just looked more irritated, if that was possible, when she was finished. Like he'd totally had his time wasted by this.

"So basically, you know the same amount as he does. This is great."

He very ungraciously slumped back on the couch, even if nothing he did would technically disturb her furniture.

"But you said it was the viewpoint, right?"

That made him pause, a little. "Well, yeah, but it's barely even a scrap. I can't do much if you're withholding, though." He turned to Kise. "Any of your other friends out around here?"

"Well..." Kise thought of Aomine, and hesitated. He knew he couldn't be far from Momoi, but he was basically the last person he wanted to confront about Kuroko, at least right this moment.

"No." Momoi was the one to speak. "I'm the only one this far out. There's no one else in Chiba, even."

That made Nijimura sigh.

"Ah— but I can rest here, right, Nijimura?"

"If it's just for one night, it's not like I care."

Momoi smiled at the two of them.

"I'll order takeout, then."

Kise was just relieved that at least one thing, even if it was as simple as Momoi's lack of cooking skill, hadn't changed.

He'd have to figure out where to go next tomorrow.


End file.
